Political Culture

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• Political Culture

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Political culture

• the sum of the fundamental values, sentiments
  and knowledge that give form and substance to
  political process

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Importance?

• Values, sentiments, knowledge
• ?
• Politics

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Civic culture

• (Almond Verba, 1963)
• Three types of political culture
• Parochial
• Subject
• Participant

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Parochial political culture

• Citizens only vaguely aware of the existence of
  central government

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Subject political culture

• Citizens see themselves not as participants in
  the political process, but as subjects of
  government

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Participant political culture

• Citizens believe that (i) they can contribute to
  the working of the political system and (ii) that
  they are affected by it

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Best for democracy?

• Not a pure participant political culture, but a
  mix
• Participant Subject Parochial

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Civic culture democracy

• If political culture is
• Participant
• subject
• parochial
• Civic culture
• ?
• Democracy

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Criticism(s) of the concept

• Vagueness
• Origins?
• Causality?
• i.e., Culture ? Democracy,
• or Democracy ? Culture?
• Evolution?

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Political trust vs. social capital

• Political trust trust in institutions
• Social capital a culture of trust and
  cooperation which makes collective action possible

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Social capitalbonding vs. bridging

• Bonding sustained by networks of people with
  similar backgrounds
• Bridging brings together dissimilar types

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(Post)materialism

• Materialism or Old Politics
• the conflict between the haves (Right) and the
  have-nots (Left)

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Roots of postmaterialism

• Economic growth (1950s-1960s)
• (Relative) peace
• Security (welfare state)
• ?
• Shift from material concerns

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Postmaterialism

• Commitment to radical quality of life issues
• Participation extensive,
• but unconventional

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Role of education?

• Similar to above factors overall improvement
• Also a positive impact
• Unlike Econ-Pol-Social factors, its effects are
  permanent

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Political culture in new democracies

• Authoritarian legacy vs. post-Communist legacy
• Post-Communist legacy E Europe vs. Central Asia
• Democratic culture can be created (economy ?
  culture)

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Dealing with political cultureauthoritarian
states

• Military regimes ignore
• Traditional regimes manipulate
• Totalitarian regimes transform

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Elite political culture

• Beliefs, attitudes and ideas about politics held
  by those who are closest to political power

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Three questions

• Does elite believe in its right to rule?
• Does the elite act on national interest?
• Does the elite accept the rules of the game?

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Political socialization

• The process through which we learn about politics
• Dimensions
• - what (content)
• - when (timing sequence)
• - from whom (agents)

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Two models

• Primacy model basic political loyalties formed
  when young
• Recency model current information carries more
  weight

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The clash of civilizations

• Huntington (1996) a shift from a battle of
  ideologies to a clash of civilizations
• Islamic vs. Western civilizations

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Huntington vs. Inglehart Norris

• Point of agreement democracy has a hard time
  taking root in Islamic countries
• Point of disagreement why is that the case?

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Islam Democracy

• Huntington lacking the core political values
  that gave birth to representative democracy in
  Western civilization
• Inglehart Norris gender (in)equality (and
  attitudes associated with it)

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Evidence? Survey data (WVS)

• Political values people from Islamic countries
  are no less supportive of democracy than the
  people from other cultures
• Social values far less committed to gender
  equality
• ? economic consequences
• ? political consequences

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Consequences

• ? economic disenfranchisement of half of the
  (potential) workforce
• ? political
• - direct political disenfranchisement
• - indirect economic underdevelopment
• ?
• political underdevelopment

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Does it matter for democracy?
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(More) bad news

• A widening generation gap
• younger generations in both Western and other
  non-Western societies are increasingly supportive
  of gender equality
• younger generations in Islamic societies are not

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Conclusion?

• The culture of Islamic societies does appear
  problematic for democracy
• More specifically, the attitudes toward gender
  equality, rather than democracy per se

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Any room for optimism?

• Modernization theory
• Economic change
• ?
• Social change
• ?
• Cultural change
• ?
• Political change